The UK government unveils its 10-year plan for the NHS today.
Ministers say this will mark a shift in focus to a prevention led rather than a treatment led service.
This will see the success of the NHS being measured by its success in keeping patients out of hospital as well as a shift from analogue to digital and from hospital to community treatment.
While this plan is NHS focused it has relevance to the wider health ecosystem too, including for supported housing and other care settings. There is so much innovation happening in the TEC sector space that could make a real difference, including our own wireless cloud-based data-led intelligent systems that can help care providers to spot health issues before they become a concern.
TEC vital to meeting challenges of providing care
We have seen the pressures our customers face across the UK, Finland and Sweden in meeting growing demand for their services with limited cash and staff resource. In our view, the plan for NHS reform over the next decade must be part of a wider programme that includes adult social care and recognises the role technology enabled care has to play.
The findings of Baroness Casey’s independent commission into reforms for adult social care can’t come soon enough. Today’s announcement for the NHS puts down a marker for wider reform. The changes laid out in the 10-year plan will also build confidence in the capabilities that intelligent, data-led technology - supported by AI and machine learning - can bring. As we said in our response to Lord Darzi’s NHS report last autumn TEC needs to be part of the prescription to fix health and social care.
The announcements made today also have the potential to provide a catalyst for future investment in preventative care technologies. These can complement rather than replace the work that care providers deliver in the quest for delivering the highest quality care. So, what are we expecting to hear officially from the Health Secretary today: We expect to hear more detail on the following:
- A shift of NHS care from hospitals to new community health centres to ‘put care on people’s doorsteps.’
- A unified single patient record bringing together patient health information, test results and letters in one place and accessible to patients via an upgraded NHS app.
- Other app enhancements include AI triaging that will enable patients to manage symptoms and make informed choices about care providers.
- A new 'innovator passport’ that will allow approved medical technologies to be adopted across all NHS trusts, helping to speed up access to cutting-edge care.
- Greater use of robotics and AI in clinical practice including ambient voice and AI documentation tools that could improve efficiency by up to a fifth.
- A scale back in overseas doctor recruitment from around a third of new hires to below 10%. Better use of technology may be required to meet the shortfall.
Peter Kerly, VP of Global Sales for Everon Group, said:
“Today’s official announcement by the government of its 10-year plan for the NHS could not be timelier and puts down a marker for wider reforms needed to support the switch to a more prevention led model of care.
“As we said last year the government’s prescription for the changes required for the NHS must include technology enabled care as part of the solution, embracing the potential of AI and machine learning. The same will apply for reforms to adult social care.
“These innovations are already proving their worth in reducing costs and increasing capacity across a social care and healthcare landscape that is struggling to keep up with the ever-growing demand on their services.”
“Everon Group and our strategic partners are pioneering proactive technology in assistive care with the capability to quickly detect shifts in behaviour that may indicate emerging health concerns.
These preventative approaches are key not only for fixing our health service and supporting staff doing their best to provide care, but also for improving the quality of life for those most in need.”
To find out more about how Everon Group can transform your service delivery and financial options available to help spread the cost, email: mark.smith@everon.net or get in touch via our contact page.
